Page 82 of Under His Protection

“Where’d Romeo go?” she asked, then furrowed her brow. “He was in my room last, right?”

“He was. We have several men being stitched up and recovering here,” I explained. “Romeo’s been in and out of all the rooms with the injured.”

I cleared my throat, hating to break this news to her, but I wouldn’t put it off. The way I saw it, starting with the bad news would only make the good news sweeter afterward.

“When Franco and I broke into the clubhouse, we found Ricky.”

Her expression fell, and she lowered her gaze for a moment. “Dead?”

I squeezed her hand. “Yes.” This woman had such a big heart. I knew she would be upset about her brother’s death. Even though he set her up for hell and was so greedy and selfish as to bet on her life, she was a giving sort of sibling.

“I feared that would happen. When I didn’t go to Reaper after the bet…”

I tipped her chin up and kissed her cheek. “You couldn’t have saved him, Nina.”

“I know.” But she hated it, anyway.

“Ricky messed with the wrong people. He was wrong to bet on you with them. And his choices—his, not yours—caught up to him.”

“I’d been thinking that even if I had gone to Reaper and fulfilled that bet, the bikers could’ve hurt him or killed him, anyway.” A shudder ran through her, and she closed her eyes on a heavy breath. “I saw and felt just how terrible those men are.”

“Were,” I corrected. Because all the Devil’s Brothers who’d been in that room were dead, killed by me and my men.

“With the help of your recording, we will be able to chase down and end the whole club,” I told her.

“Good. Even though I hated what Ricky did to me, he was family. I’d like to know they won’t just get away with that.” She frowned again, studying the sheet. “Now I have no family.”

“You do.” I smiled slowly, glad I could follow up the news about her brother’s death with the discovery of her pregnancy.

“With you?” she asked.

“Fuck yeah.” I chuckled. “And Romeo and Eva. The whole Constella organization will be your family.”

She started to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“And our child.”

She went still, staring at me. “What?” she asked on a quiet exhale.

“They’ve been very thorough with blood tests since you were exposed. They called it a ‘biohazard’ concern. All clear,” I rushed to add. “But in the process of doing all that blood work, they found out that you’re pregnant, too.”

“Oh, Dante.” Tears built on her lids, but with the wide, bright smile she couldn’t hide, I knew they would be tears of joy. “Really?”

“Very, very early days,” I told her, repeating what the doctor said. He worded it as though Nina wouldn’t have known about her condition yet. It was that early.

“So you’ll have our child as family.”

“And you as…” She grinned, sniffling from her joyous reaction to the news that we would bring a baby into the world.

“Your husband.”

She gazed at me with so much love shining in her eyes that I choked on all the emotions rising up within me.

“I wondered if I was hearing things when you carried me out of there. I didn’t want to open my eyes or my mouth.”

“Understandably,” I said, kissing her knuckles again.

“But I could’ve sworn I heard you call me your wife.” Her grin was radiant and precious. Even though we’d gone through hell to reach this moment, I wanted to memorize the beauty of her happiness forever.

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